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Non-Tech : Any info about Iomega (IOM)? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Reseller who wrote (43723)	1/18/1998 10:24:00 AM
From: Tom Carroll	Respond to of 58324

RE: Iomega's options strategy Dave, You're welcome about the split/options question. Alas, in my career, I've worked for a university and then for a relatively penniless nonprofit. These are not good vantage points for watching all the little ins and outs of employee stock options plans. <g> I was just reporting to you the publicly-disclosed rationale that Iomega gave for the split. I don't know all the technical details. Maybe someone else on the thread who's a little closer to such things can help you out there. Or maybe they already have, since there are at the moment over a hundred unread messages after yours awaiting my perusal. My very amateur take on things is that insiders at Iomega fully expect the shares to appreciate a whole lot more in the next couple of years, and that therefore it's advantageous to hold options on more shares, even at the post-split price, so that they can have more flexibility at selling some off now and then, etcetera, etcetera. I also think that Iomega got surprised by the drift down in the price just as the split took effect. Leading up to their November announcement of the split, the stock was rocketing into the low thirties, and they were about to launch the Clik! program in public as well, so they expected the price to top forty pre-split and to therefore be in the low twenties post-split. They failed to factor in the Asian headaches, the disk drive doldrums, and the shakiness of the market in general. So the price hasn't ramped as expected. It will eventually, I think, because they're still on track with selling the Zips and so on, but we'll just have to be patient as their earnings drive up the price. The mutuals and so on aren't buying now, but they will eventually as long as the earnings keep going up, and I'm betting that they will. Maybe KE will even allow an extra penny or so of earnings in next week's announcement--thereby breaking ranks with the past and confounding Jak!'s prediction--to help spike the price back up over twenty. Who knows? Thanks for all the inside dope about inventories. Cheers, Tom (long IOM)